Welcome to this instalment of Rapid Fire, my ongoing series of quick interviews with authors talking about their new releases. These are short and sweet interviews, with the idea being that each author will answer (more or less) the same questions – by the end of each interview I hope you will have a good idea of what the new book (or audio drama) is about, what inspired it and why you might want to read or listen to it.
In this instalment I spoke to up and coming Black Library author JC Stearns about his new 40k novel The Oubliette, the latest to be published under the Warhammer Horror imprint. The physical edition is due out in February 2020, but the ebook is available early as a ‘digital premiere’, as part of the 2019 Advent Calendar series. Read on to find out more about what horrors await in this latest tome of horrors.
Let’s get straight to the questions and Jim’s answers.
Track of Words: What’s the elevator pitch summary for The Oubliette?
JC Stearns: A newly crowned planetary governor faces threats on her life by a rival faction known for their depravity. To keep the world out of their hands and preserve the safety of her people, she has to decide whether or not to make a deal with the darkest of saviors, and then negotiate how much ‘help’ she’s willing to accept from such a heretical source of aid.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
JS: Ashielle Matkosen is the planetary governor, whose dedication to duty and public service is positively Macraggian, drilled into her by the father she just lost.
Hanrik Matkosen is her little brother, sent away in his youth. Now a member of the Adeptus Arbites, he’s back on-planet for their father’s funeral.
The Vaneisens are a rival family, positioned in a subordinate co-ruler role unique to this planet. If Ashielle dies or is removed from office, the palace will fall into their hands. They’re vain, greedy, petty, and cruel: the last sort of people you’d want to see with the vast powers of a planetary governorship.
ToW: Where and when is it set?
JS: The planet of Ceocan on the southeast fringes of the Segmentum Tempestus. It’s an agri-world of barely any importance, far-flung enough to have fallen out of contact with the Imperium for centuries before. There’s a sizeable Adeptus Mechanicus interest in the outer part of their solar system, but no one in the Imperium cares what happens domestically on the planet.
If anyone’s interested in the timeline, the specific time period (like so many stories in the Black Library) is a little unclear. The only date given is a reference to an Administratum report from M37, so we know it’s after that, and it’s assuredly set before the fall of Cadia. Other than that, the time period is up in the air.
Check out Void Crossed for another great story from Jim
ToW: What appeals to you about writing horror stories in particular in the 41st millennium?
JS: It’s both ridiculously easy and ludicrously hard at the same time. Easy because EVERYTHING in 40k can be terrifying if you look at it from the right angle. You could do a story about grots or t’au gun drones and make them legitimately horrifying if you framed them correctly. On the other hand, it’s a setting where the inhumanity of mankind and horrendous splattergore narratives are exceptionally common, so you can’t go for the low-hanging fruit of the horror genre. That’s the part that’s hard: finding a way to show how scary some of these things can be.
ToW: What sort of horror story would you say this is? Are we talking monster story, psychological horror…?
JS: Pandora’s Box? The kind of themes we see in, say, Pet Sematary or Hellraiser: if you’re trapped in an impossible situation, how far are you willing to go? And then how far are you willing to keep going to deal with the consequences of your actions?
ToW: Where did you look for influences when planning and writing this?
JS: Candyman was one of my first watches when working on this, followed by Beetlejuice. The latter has ALWAYS been a huge influence on my writing, and I realized early it had left a mark on this novel, too. About midway through I realized I’d been influenced a TON by Little Shop of Horrors as well (Broadway, not film). I ended up listening to the 1982 cast album as my writer’s music several times during the last half of the draft.
ToW: Why this story? Of all the possible 40k stories you could have written, what made you go for this one?
JS: There are a whole boatload of things in 40k that are objectively terrifying, but when you see them on the tabletop or in the battlefield narratives, tend to be glossed over or ignored. Wraithguard, Mad Doks, the Kroot: they’re all terrifying at their core, but they aren’t the units that you see in-game and wet your pants about facing. Even in the novels, the focus tends to be on generals and elite heroes, so a lot of the lower-tier battlefield roles tend to fall by the wayside. One of the best aspects of the horror line, in my opinion, is that it gives some of those baddies a chance to really shine and show us how monstrous they can be.
As to what particular monster I went with for my first outing, you’ll have to pick up the book to see. That said, I don’t think anyone who’s read any of my previous pieces is going to be particularly surprised.
Jim’s excellent short story Turn of the Adder is featured in Inferno! Volume 2
ToW: Your Black Library writing up to this point has tended to heavily feature aeldari characters of one type or another, most of whom have definitely erred on the darker side. Do you think you’ve always written horror in your 40k stories, even if it’s not been labelled as such?
JS: Absolutely! When I’m doing a story about aliens, I want to really trigger the idea that they are, in some way, VERY alien. Aeldari are great for that because you can really show how their mindset and culture can emphasize that to the heights of wonder or the depths of fatalistic terror.
I definitely try to go for a specific palette of emotional reactions when I’m writing a story, and more often than not one of the basic horror emotions like terror, horror, unease, paranoia, or revulsion ends up being on my list for a 40k story. With a story like Wraithbound or The Marauder Lives [in Maledictions], that horror element is just an accent to the narrative, though. With The Oubliette, those kinds of themes are the main attraction, with ideas like wonderment and vindication serving as accents.
ToW: What do you hope 40k and Warhammer Horror fans will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?
JS: Hopefully a reminder that no matter what the Ethereal Caste or the Ecclesiarchy say, the 41st millennium is a terrible place to visit and an even worse place to live. And maybe a little bit of perspective: some of the baddies in 40k might be easily blown down by a full company of Astartes with heavy artillery support, and written off as nothing more than bubblewrap, distractions, or bait on the tabletop, but to a regular person like you or me forced to live in the Imperium, those same threats are incomprehensibly frightening.
ToW: Do you have any plans to write more about these characters and setting, or is this a standalone story?
JS: Without spoiling too much, I think it might be a teensy bit difficult to do another horror novel in this setting, but not impossible. If there was any kind of support for a sequel, prequel, or loose continuance, however, I’d be nothing less than thrilled to do it!
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Thanks so much to Jim for taking the time to answer these questions! If you would like to read my review of The Oubliette then just click here, and if you’d like to check out my reviews of some of Jim’s other Black Library stories you can find them all here.
Click here to order The Oubliette, or here for the audiobook version.
Click here if you fancy taking a look at some other Rapid Fire interviews. If you have any questions, comments or other thoughts please do let me know in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter.
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